International student enrolment is down 17% under Trump: Here’s what’s at stake for the US

For more than two decades, the United States has been the preferred academic destination for ambitious students across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. But the gravitational pull that once defined American higher education is weakening. This year, that shift became unmistakable. The United States recorded a 17% decline in new international student enrolment in autumn 2025, the sharpest non-pandemic fall in more than a decade, according to data from the Institute of International Education (IIE) . The drop follows a 7% fall in the 2024-2025 academic year, signalling not a blip but an emerging pattern. More than half of the 825 American institutions included in the IIE’ s autumn data reported decreases in new international enrolments. And the reason, institutions say, is